Process - Physician - Fraser Health Authority

REACTIVATING YOUR LIFEStep 4: Carry out your goalsIt’s important to realize that you probably won’t“feel like” doing your activity goals. In depression, yourmotivation to do things is much less than usual. But ifyou wait until you feel like it, most likely nothing willhappen. Do the activity because you set a goal for yourselfand because it will help you get better. After you’vedone and checked off each goal, you will see whatyou’ve accomplished.In the early stages of recovering from depression, it’slikely that you won’t get much enjoyment from youractivities, but as you continue to increase your activitylevel and focus on recovery, you will gradually regainthe ability to enjoy activities. You’ll even regain theability to motivate yourself!If you completed a goal, did you congratulate yourself?If not, do so now. Depression is likely to make youfocus on the things you haven’t done, and ignore ordownplay your accomplishments. This keeps the depressiongoing, because you will constantly feel like a failure.Deliberately remind yourself of achievements, no matterhow small they may seem. “All right, I planned to walkaround the block and I did it. Good.” Don’t ignore smallvictories or think they don’t count. They do, especiallyduring depression. If you find yourself minimizing yourown achievement (“but that was such a small thing todo”), remember that completing small goals whiledepressed is like walking a short distance with a veryheavy pack. Meeting goals while depressed is challengingand deserves to be recognized.If you didn’t succeed, what got in the way? What canyou do to make the goal easier? Recognize that yourgoal may have been too ambitious. Try making it smallerfor next week, or substitute a different goal. Depressedpeople often set their goals too high, fail to reachthem, and become discouraged. The problem is not thatthey are lazy, but that they are too eager to get well!Scale back to something you are sure you can do, evenif you feel no better this week than you did last week.Washing one dish, making one phone call, opening onebill, walking around one block, or spending five minutesat a hobby: these are all perfectly reasonable goals. Asyour energy comes back you will be able to do more.But for now, allow yourself to get started slowly.SELF-CARE DEPRESSION PROGRAM28 ANTIDEPRESSANT SKILLS WORKBOOK